covenant

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The Hebrew, Greek, Ge’ez, and Latin that are translated as “covenant” in English are translated in a variety of ways. Here are some (back-) translations:

  • Mossi: “helping promise”
  • Vai: “a thing-time-bind” (i.e. “an arrangement agreed upon for a period of time”)
  • Loma (Liberia): “agreement”
  • Northwestern Dinka: “agreement which is tied up” (i.e. “secure and binding”)
  • Chol: “a word which is left”
  • Huastec: “a broken-off word” (“based on the concept of ‘breaking off a word’ and leaving it with the person with whom an agreement has been reached”)
  • Tetelcingo Nahuatl: “a death command” (i.e. “a special term for testament”)
  • Piro: “a promised word”
  • Eastern Krahn: “a word between”
  • Yaka: “promise that brings together” (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Nabak: alakŋaŋ or “tying the knot” (source: Fabian 2013, p. 156)
  • Kâte: ʒâʒâfic or “tie together” (source: Renck 1990, p. 108)
  • Nyamwezi: ilagano: “agreement, contract, covenant, promise” (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Bariai: “true talk” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Q’anjob’al: “put mouths equal” (representing agreement) (source: Newberry and Kittie Cox in The Bible Translator 1950, p. 91ff. )
  • Manikion, Indonesian: “God’s promise” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Natügu: nzesz’tikr drtwr: “oneness of mind” (source: Brenda Boerger in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 164)
  • Tagalog: tipan: mutual promising on the part of two persons agreeing to do something (also has a romantic touch and denotes something secretive) (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tagbanwa: “initiated-agreement” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Cherokee: “that which is told” (source: Bender / Belt 2025, p. 16)
  • Guhu-Samane: “The concept [in Mark 14:24 and Matthew 16:28] is not easy, but the ritual freeing of a fruit and nut preserve does afford some reference. Thus, ‘As they were drinking he said to them, ‘On behalf of many this poro provision [poro is the traditional religion] of my blood is released.’ (…) God is here seen as the great benefactor and man the grateful recipient.” (Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator, 1965, p. 81ff. )
  • Chichewa: pangano. This word can also be translated as a contract, agreement, or a treaty between two parties. In Chewa culture, two people or groups enter into an agreement to help each other in times of need. When entering into an agreement, parties look at the mutual benefits which will be gained. The agreement terms are mostly kept as a secret between the parties and the witnesses involved. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Law (2013, p. 95) writes about how the Ancient Greek Septuagint‘s translation of the Hebrew berith was used by the New Testament writers as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments (click or tap here to read more):

“Right from the start we witness the influence of the Septuagint on the earliest expressions of the Christian faith. In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of his blood being a kaine diatheke, a ‘new covenant.’ The covenant is elucidated in Hebrews 8:8-12 and other texts, but it was preserved in the words of Jesus with this language in Luke 22:20 when at the Last Supper Jesus said, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus’s blood was to provide the grounds for the ‘new covenant,’ in contrast to the old one his disciples knew from the Jewish scriptures (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34). Thus, the earliest Christians accepted the Jewish Scriptures as prophecies about Jesus and in time began to call the collection the ‘Old Testament’ and the writings about Jesus and early Christianity the ‘New Testament,’ since ‘testament’ was another word for ‘covenant.’ The covenant promises of God (berith in Hebrew) were translated in the Septuagint with the word diatheke. In classical Greek diatheke had meant ‘last will, testament,’ but in the Septuagint it is the chosen equivalent for God’s covenant with his people. The author of Hebrews plays on the double meaning, and when Luke records Jesus’ announcement at the Last Supper that his blood was instituting a ‘new covenant,’ or a ‘new testament,’ he is using the language in an explicit contrast with the old covenant, found in the Jewish scriptures. Soon, the writings that would eventually be chosen to make up the texts about the life and teachings of Jesus and the earliest expression of the Christian faith would be called the New Testament. This very distinction between the Old and New Testaments is based on the Septuagint’s language.”

See also establish (covenant) and covenant (book).

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Covenant in the Hebrew Bible .

God's covenant with Noah

Image taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .

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Following is an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India.

For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here .

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establish (covenant)

The Hebrew and Greek that is most often translated as “establish” in English when mentioned in association with establishing a covenant is translated in Nyamwezi with a verb that means “erect.” (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)

See also covenant.

flood

The Hebrew, Ge’ez, Latin, and Greek that is translated as “flood” in English is translated in the German Luther Bible as Sintflut and the influential Dutch Bibles Statenvertaling and Nieuwe Vertaling as zondvloed. Both terms originally mean “great / permanent flood” but have folk-etymologically been reinterpreted as “sin flood” (“sin” in Dutch is zonde and in German Sünde).

Today these terms are used in either language figuratively as well (“a lot of water” or “a lot”). (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

See also Translation commentary on Genesis 6:17.

complete verse (Genesis 9:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Genesis 9:11:

  • Kankanaey: “What I promise to you, it is this. Starting-from now, I will not again flood this earth so-that all living-things will drown and all that is here will be destroyed.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I will make a covenant with you, No living being will ever die by the coming of another flood, The earth will not be destroyed by the coming of another flood.'” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “‘This is my covenant to you (pl.) and to your (pl.) descendants, and to all-that live on earth including all the animals who were with you in the ark: I surely will- not -destroy again all that live by-means-of a very severe flood. And never again will- a flood like this -happen to destroy the earth.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “This is the promise that I am making to you: I will never again destroy all living creatures by a flood, or destroy everything else on the earth by a flood.'” (Source: Translation for Translators)

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also pronoun for “God”.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Genesis 9:11

I establish my covenant with you: establish is the same causative form of the verb as in verse 9, but here the regular narrative tense is used. If the verb is taken as having a present sense, this statement is introductory to the terms of the covenant and presents God as the one who initiates the covenant. It is the equivalent of the English expressions “For my part I promise…,” “As for me I agree to…,” “Here is what I agree to…,” “I commit myself to you by promising….” Some commentators and translators, however, take the verb as having a future sense: “And I will maintain my covenant with you, that…” (Speiser), “I shall sustain my covenant with you:…” (New English Bible). The verb used can mean to keep something standing as well as to cause something to stand in the first place. Either sense is acceptable.

For my covenant see verse 9 and 6.18. You is again plural, with reference to Noah and his sons.

The words which follow that in Revised Standard Version are the content or terms of the covenant from God’s side. In many languages they will need to be introduced by an appropriate formal marker like “With these words” (Good News Translation, see discussion of the next verse). Two examples are “I make my contract with you in this talk:…” and “This is my word: I promise that….”

That never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood is the first half of the promise and is nearly identical in meaning to the second half. All flesh means all life, all living beings, human and animal life. Be cut off represents the passive form of the verb to cut off. The sense is to “destroy,” “extinguish,” “do away with,” “eliminate,” “cause to die.”

By the waters of a flood, that is, “by causing a flood.” In languages that do not use the passive construction, it may be necessary to say, for example, “I will never again cause a flood to destroy all humans and animals” or “I promise that I will never again kill all living things by drowning them in a flood.”

The second half of the promise, never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth, is parallel in sense to the first part. Destroy translates the same word used in 6.13. The earth probably refers here to the physical world rather than to the people as in the first half of the verse. So Speiser has “… devastate the earth,” and Revised English Bible “… lay waste the earth.” One translation expresses the second half of the verse as “… and a flood won’t ever cover every place in the world again.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .